Clause 10 - Non-money receipts
Local Government Bill
3:30 pm
Mr Nick Raynsford (Minister of State (Local and Regional Government), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
The Department has rightly been working on two principles. First, authorities should be aware of the value of any land that they pass across and should have an idea of how much they are giving as subsidy. Secondly, we have been keen to ensure that the new regime should not be subverted by arrangements always to seek nomination rights rather than a cash receipt or other consideration in order to evade the provisions of the subsequent clause. That is why the regulation is as currently drafted but, as I told the Committee, we are conscious of potential damage to good partnership arrangements between local authorities and registered social landlords in order to provide affordable housing in areas in which it is most needed.
We intend to revisit the matter to provide the comfort that the hon. Gentleman wants to ensure that such partnerships may continue while covering ourselves against the risk of evasion. We are not in a position to identify precisely how we will achieve that, but it is our intention. Given that assurance, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will withdraw the amendment.